Drupal (AI) Playground: Walking with AGENTS.md
Creating some rules for my playground
I'm setting up my Drupal Playground to experiment with AI coding agents. My previous post was about using Claude Code to establish a Drupal environment, and it felt a bit like crawling, but now I am ready to pick up the pace.
I've experimented and found that, in addition to sending effective code-generation prompts to an AI, providing metadata about the targeted codebase is equally important. The standard way to give this context is AGENTS.md. My initial experiments with Amazee.io's AGENTS.md produced much better results with PHPStorm's Junie. I'm inclined to think that Drupal core should include an AGENTS.md file or template.
Meanwhile, I've been experimenting with Claude's Chat UI without any context beyond knowing I am a Drupal developer. Despite this, Claude, with no background information, shows an impressive understanding of Drupal's API and developer workflow. For example, Claude can plan and develop an entire module, including automated tests. I look forward to seeing Claude attempt to build a Telephone Filter module, based on the one I created with ChatGPT a year ago. For now, I plan to continue setting up my environment to give Claude Code the necessary context to produce the most reliable results.
Adding context via CLAUDE.md (aka AGENTS.md)
Drupal Cafe Lutsk #30 Recap Highlights Community Meetup and Organiser Insights
The browser has grown up. Have we?
By Mari Núñez and Andrés Díaz Soto
If you study computer science or web development, you’ll take an introductory JavaScript course. Everyone starts in a similar place: variables, let and const (or var if you’re old enough), maybe even a conversation about the difference. You write a few functions, do some math, and concatenate some strings. It feels like learning a language in the abstract — technically correct, but removed from real work.
Before long, you are manipulating a web page. You grab an element, change its content, add a class, and attach a click handler. The browser responds. The page changes. It finally feels tangible.
But even then, JavaScript can feel like a layer you add on top rather than the foundation of the experience itself. And almost inevitably, you move to a library or framework. For many of us, that once meant jQuery.
Abstraction solved real problemsjQuery did not become dominant because developers were lazy. It solved real problems. Browsers were fragmented. There was no consistent way to select elements from the DOM. Event handling varied. AJAX required wrestling with verbose XMLHttpRequest code and awkward callback patterns. jQuery unified those concerns behind a clean, approachable interface: the dollar sign selector, the on method, simple get and post helpers, animations like fadeIn and slideUp.
It was a necessary abstraction at the time.
Over the years, though, the platform evolved. Browsers standardized. APIs matured. ES6 modernized the language. CSS grew far more capable. Many of the problems jQuery once addressed were absorbed directly into the browser.
The platform changed.
Building a Drupal contrib module with AI-assisted TDD
New Module Builder documentation site
Module Builder now has its own documentation site.
This covers the many options it offers developers for fine-tuning their module code, from dependency injection to plugin inheritance, entity base fields, form elements, permissions, library asset files, and more.
Meanwhile, the latest release of Module Builder adds a feature I've wanted to implement for a very long time: when a new form section is added to add a new component (such as a plugin, hook class, or entity type), the form scrolls up to the new section that's just been added with AJAX. This makes it much clearer to understand what's just been changed, and helps with navigating around Module Builder's forms.
joachim Thu, 19/03/2026 - 12:45Tags
Integrating Forms With an External Database
Undocumented trick to make Composer copy a local package repository
I needed to test a Drupal module I was working on in a Docker container. The code was not in a location accessible to Docker. I tried to use Composer to copy it over. This would have worked if the code contained a composer.json file. I could have used a Composer path repository with symlink set to false. But it did not contain a composer.json file, so I had to use a Composer package repository. Composer kept symlinking instead of copying.
Tags
Accessibility Beyond Compliance for Government and University Platforms
Designing for Difference: Practical Strategies for Building a Neuroinclusive Organization
March 2026 Drupal for Nonprofits Chat
Join us THURSDAY, March 19 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)
We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits. Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google document at https://nten.org/drupal/notes!
All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.
This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.
Information on joining the meeting can be found in our collaborative Google document.
Announcement – Display Builder 1.0.0-beta4 is released
Building the Future of Drupal: Development, AI & Agentic Architecture at DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026
As Drupal continues to evolve, so does the way we build digital platforms. Modern Drupal projects are no longer only about creating websites, they involve complex architectures, integrations, automation, and increasingly, intelligent systems.
That is why the Development, AI & Agentic Architecture track is at the heart of DrupalCon Europe 2026 in Rotterdam.
This track remains the home for backend developers, frontend developers, and advanced site builders, while also exploring how new technologies such as AI and agentic architectures are shaping the next generation of digital experiences.
If you build, extend, integrate, or scale Drupal, this track is for you.
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Foto by Pdjohnson
Why AI is part of the conversationArtificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming how digital platforms operate. From content generation and intelligent search to workflow automation and personalization, AI is becoming part of the tools developers use every day.
But within the Drupal community, the conversation around AI is different from what we often see elsewhere.
Drupal has always been built on values like openness, transparency, privacy, and user control. As AI becomes more widely adopted, our community is actively exploring how these technologies can be used responsibly and ethically.
Preparing File Upload Secure Validator for Drupal 12 with AI
At Tag1, we believe in proving AI within our own work before recommending it to clients. This post is part of our AI Applied content series, where team members share real stories of how they're using Artificial Intelligence and the insights and lessons they learn along the way. Here, Stefanos Petrakis, maintainer of the File Upload Secure Validator module, shows how he used AI to modernize a small but widely used Drupal security module and prepare it for Drupal 12.
From "I'll Get to It" to Done: Modernizing File Upload Secure ValidatorI’ve been meaning to clean up the File Upload Secure Validator project and get it ready for Drupal 12 for a while now. This small, focused module has been around for nearly a decade. Despite its simplicity, it continues to serve more than 10,000 reported sites, and adoption has only accelerated with the introduction of Drupal AI. With the help of Cline and Claude, I finally did a full overhaul of the codebase: switching to Drupal 11-only support, expanding the automated test suite, and positioning the project for Drupal 12.
Figure 1: Weekly File Upload Secure Validator usage report, that refects an increase in usage post Drupal AI release.
When the people who run the platform aren’t the people who run the content
Director of Technical Strategy
Dave has been crafting websites since 2003 and has been active with Drupal communities around the world, sharing a passion for improving effectiveness, editorial experience, and long-term success.
January 1, 1970
A dashboard isn’t just a summary page. It’s a statement of priorities. Every item that appears, and everything that doesn’t, tells editors what the organization believes actually matters.
That’s worth thinking carefully about, because most dashboards aren’t designed that way. They’re assembled. A few shortcuts here, some default widgets there. The result is a starting screen that reflects what was easy to build rather than what editors actually need.
We help manage a Drupal platform that supports 500 editors across 130 sites. Getting a dashboard right for that kind of scale required us to ask some uncomfortable questions about what we actually valued, and what we’d been ignoring.
The quarterly PDF problemBefore we built our dashboard, someone on our platform team was manually generating reports for each of the 130 sites every quarter. Accessibility problems. Broken links. Duplicate content. All compiled, formatted, and sent out as a PDF.
It was better than nothing. But it had two serious problems.
How to add Taxonomy term references to Canvas (experience builder) components in Drupal
Future-Proofing Accessibility for Government and University Drupal Platforms
Talking Drupal #544 - World Cancer Day
Today we are talking about World Cancer Day, how they use Drupal, and why Drupal was the right choice with our guests Charles Andrew Revkin & Diego Costa. We'll also cover PDFa11y as our module of the week.
For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/544
Topics- What Is World Cancer Day
- Why UICC Uses Drupal
- Diego Joins the Project
- Multilingual Strategy at Scale
- Drupal Architecture and AI Tools
- Vetting AI Moderation and Summaries
- AI Disclosure and Review
- Traffic Spikes and Scaling
- Drupal Stack and React Apps
- Campaign Theme United by Unique
- Yearly Content and Three Year Cycle
- Drupal Community and Open Access
- Custom AI Modules and Azure
- Future Improvements and AI Tagging
- Story Submission Formats
- Prevention PSA and Wrap Up
Diego Costa - 1xinternet.com diegofcosta Charles Andrew Revkin - worldcancerday.org revkin
When “Free Beer” Meets Infrastructure Reality
The modern web runs on Open Source. The software itself remains freely available, but the infrastructure that sustains the ecosystem operates under fragile funding models. In a recent blog post, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert draws attention to a structural imbalance familiar across many open-source projects: the registries, repositories, CI systems, and update services developers rely on are widely treated as public goods, yet their costs are rarely shared proportionally by the organisations that depend on them.
In Drupal’s case, maintaining the ecosystem’s infrastructure costs roughly $3 million each year, covering servers, bandwidth, content delivery networks, software systems, and operational staff. When distributed across the installed base, that amounts to roughly $10 per active Drupal site annually. The Drupal Association currently operates with about $7.50 per site, leaving a modest but persistent gap. The shortfall does not immediately break systems, but it accumulates as technical debt: upgrades are postponed, legacy infrastructure remains in service longer than intended, and improvements move more slowly than the community might expect.
The deeper issue is structural rather than financial. Hundreds of thousands of sites rely on Drupal.org services, yet the cost of operating those systems remains largely disconnected from the organisations that benefit from them. Much of Drupal’s infrastructure is sustained through a combination of event revenue, sponsorship, corporate memberships, and generous in-kind contributions from partners such as AWS, the Oregon State University Open Source Lab, and Tag1. These contributions are invaluable, but they also illustrate how much the ecosystem depends on goodwill rather than predictable funding mechanisms.
Never submit code you don't understand
Years ago, in the early Drupal days, you would see a mantra everywhere: "Don't hack core".
It showed up in issue queues, conference talks, support channels, stickers, and even on T-shirts. It was short and memorable, and it solved a real problem: too many people were modifying Drupal Core instead of extending it properly.
Over time the mantra worked. The ecosystem matured. Not just the software itself, but also the habits and expectations around it. Today you rarely hear people say "Don't hack core".
With AI changing how code gets written, we may need a new mantra.
In Open Source, all code needs to be understood and reviewed before it can be merged. That responsibility belongs to both contributors and maintainers. AI is changing how code gets written, but it does not change that responsibility. In fact, it may make it easier to forget.
Code you don't understand becomes someone else's problem. In Open Source, that someone is often the maintainer reviewing your patch.
Offloading bad code onto maintainers slows down reviews for everyone. Plus, you miss the chance to learn from the code and grow as a developer.
It shouldn't matter what tools you use. But if you submit code, you should be able to explain what it does, why it works, and how it interacts with the rest of the code.
Everyone starts somewhere. Even today's top contributors submitted imperfect patches early on. You are welcome here, with or without AI tools. Perfection isn't required, but understanding your code is. Own your code.
Maybe it's time for some new stickers and T-shirts.
Drupal Powering Digital Ecosystems: Showcase your case study at the DrupalCon Europe 2026 Success Stories and Innovation track
As we look ahead to DrupalCon Europe 2026 in Rotterdam this October, we invite organizations, agencies, and digital leaders to submit their stories to the Success Stories & Innovation track.
This track showcases how Drupal is used today to power far more than websites. Across industries, Drupal enables organizations to build digital platforms, integrate complex systems, automate workflows, and create scalable ecosystems that support real business needs. From AI-driven personalization to DevOps automation and composable architectures, we want to highlight real-world projects that demonstrate how Drupal drives innovation.
In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, organizations must continuously evolve to stay competitive. Digital transformation is no longer just about launching a new website — it’s about building connected systems, automating processes, and delivering consistent experiences across multiple channels. Drupal plays a key role in this transformation as a flexible, secure, and extensible open-source platform that adapts to complex enterprise environments.
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Foto by Paul Johnson https://flic.kr/p/2rzSoJP
Why Drupal?Drupal is not just a content management system. It is a powerful platform that can act as the backbone of digital ecosystems, integrating content, data, services, and applications into a unified experience.
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